Rolen ready to roll

It’s the full-squad report and first workout day for all 58 players in Reds camp. As far as I know, everyone is here. I saw Joey Votto say hello to teammates. It’s a slow start since there are more physicals being taken, a team meeting, followed by the afternoon workout.

I will have more on this later with a complete story on MLB.com, but Scott Rolen is also here. Obviously, Rolen has ambitions on a much better 2012 than 2011. He batted only .242 in 65 games and missed most of the second half. Rolen says he’s ready to go after Aug. 3 left shoulder surgery to remove bone spurs and fragments.

“I feel good,” Rolen said. “I have more range of motion than I’ve had for the last four or five years probably.”

Rolen is in the final year of his contract but passed on saying whether or not he planned to play beyond 2012. He will turn 37 on April 4.

“I’m not spending much time on that,” Rolen said. “Right now I have one year left on my contract. If this is my last year, I want to make sure I get out there and I play and contribute and I want to be accountable for this year. I had a hard time with that last year. That was one of the biggest disappointments I had last year. I felt unaccountable. As an everyday player, one of the most important jobs is the responsibility to your position, to your team and accountable for what happens on the field and yourself being on the field. I wasn’t able to do any of that last year. I’m looking in the present right now, just getting on the field and being accountable.”

Unlike last spring when he hoped for 120 games from Rolen, Dusty Baker wasn’t putting a number of it this time.

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Baker said. “I’ll say it’s interesting. I like Ryan Braun. I’m glad things worked out for him. But I imagine there could be some guys that did go down that are wondering why his was reversed and theirs wasn’t. “It definitely opens future doors and it might open some past doors. What good it does, I don’t know.”

5 Comments

There are two guys that many fans appear to not give full credit to this coming year…
1) Arroyo and 2) Rolen. Both are coming off poor years, both are coming off injury or sickness years and both have been nothing but major contributors prior to 2011.

I, for one, believe that they will both rebound as both have rebounded off their
dibilitating problems and both are boasting completely sound and healthy bodies,
even at their senior years.

And, if both prove to be successful this coming year, the Reds are even further
strengthened in the SP staff and corner position; let’s say 13W for one and 20HR for the other (respectively)…sound resonable?

I don’t think Rolen has much power left, so home runs would not be my measuring stick. But he can still be very productive somewhere in the middle of the line-up by being what he has always been: a smart contact hitter who can drive in runs with or without power…

Rolan is definately a key player for 2012. Without him the Reds have a large hole in the middle of their lineup. I think he can come back and have a good year but i do not think he can play more than 120 games like Dusty hopes. I hope Dusty doesn’t push him too hard and loose Rolan for the 2nd half of the year. Rolan’s backup, either Francisco or Frazier, will be keys to our success also. We have to wonder about Francisco’s health as he entered spring training with soreness in that calf still.

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